Silver nanoparticles alter the permeability of sheep pleura and of sheep and human pleural mesothelial cell monolayers

•AgNPs acutely increase the permeability of sheep pleura in a size dependent manner.•AgNPs reduce the permeability of sheep primary mesothelial cell monolayers.•AgNPs effect is more pronounced after basolateral exposure of primary mesothelial cells.•AgNPs reduce the permeability of human mesothelial cells only after apical exposure.

Nanoparticles have been implicated in the development of pleural effusions in exposed factory workers while in experimental animal studies it has been shown that they induce inflammation, fibrosis and carcinogenesis in the pleura. The scope of this study was to investigate the direct effects of silver nanoparticles exposure on the membrane permeability of sheep parietal pleura, of primary sheep pleural cell monolayers and on a human mesothelial cell line. Our findings suggest that acute (30 min) exposure increases the pleural permeability ex vivo, while longer (24 h) exposure in vivo leads to late decrease of the pleural cell monolayers permeability.